Shadow
by seeker614
Summary: One-shot. A confrontation between Steve and Ponyboy. Steve is tired of Ponyboy following Soda around. (Note: contains swearing)


The kid was coming. Again.

"I'm trying to get him out of the house. Since Johnny and Dally, you know, he's just been so…lost," Soda pleaded with me.

I just shook my head, "Whatever." My plan for tonight had been to cheer Soda up, not Ponyboy. Evie and some of her friends were going to meet up with us at the Dingo, and wasn't thrilled to have the kid tagging along. I know he's been a basket-case since everything, but I was sick of having to hang out with him every time I wanted to do something with Sodapop. The kid quite literally followed Soda everywhere. He hung out at the DX after school and on weekends. He never went out unless Soda dragged him along. I don't think kid even enjoyed coming out with us.

Soda was chatting it up Laura, one of Evie's friends, by the concession stand.

"You seen Soda?" Ponyboy asked me as he wandered back from the bathroom.

"He's busy kid, don't go bugging him. Give him a little breathing room."

Ponyboy frowned at me, "I ain't bugging him. He invited me to come."

I don't know why I was so annoyed with the kid, I didn't really have a good reason, just being around him all the time was getting on my nerves. I felt like a babysitter. "He invited you cause you've been moping around for a month and following Soda around like his freakin' shadow. I know you've had it rough, but we all have to deal with it and move on. Dally and Johnny are dead and you need to get over it. Stop acting like a five year old. It's bad enough you can't sleep in your own bed and crawl into Soda's like a frighten toddler, now you follow him around like a puppy. If you want to go to a movie, go with your own friends," I honestly don't know where that all came from. I didn't mean it to be so mean, I just exploded. "Who did you use to go to the movies with before you became Soda's shadow?"

And Pony just stood there taking it all with a hurt look on his face, "Johnny," he replied quietly.

Man did that make me feel like a jerk, but I was too proud and fired up to say sorry. "Well he ain't exactly here. Why don't you go with one of your school friends or something. Give Soda and me a break,"

Ponyboy looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world, and then he got mad. It surprised me. I knew Soda had a temper when he got serious about something, and Darry was a loaded pistol ready to fire at any time, mostly at Pony, but I hadn't ever seen Ponyboy really go off before.

"Yeah, let be call up one of my rich socy classmates and ask if he'd like to go see a movie with the kid he shoves down the stairs everyday, or the maybe one of the girls who doesn't bother to lower her voice as she tells her friend I'm a no good hood, or if I'm lucky maybe one of the drunks will come with me so he can beat me to a pulp after the movie. Sounds fun! Fuck you. I'm going home, tell Soda I got bored," Ponyboy's angry sarcasm ringing in my ears.

He was gone from sight by the time I realized what all that meant. He was a year younger than everyone, and in all the smart classes, the Soc classes. I hear Soda laughing as he walked back over with Laura, and I realized this: Ponyboy didn't have any friends outside of the gang. God I'm an asshole.

The old man was drunk when I walked back in at one and told me if I wasn't going to come home on time I'd do better to not come home at all. I headed down the block to Soda's to crash on the couch. I opened the door quietly and turned to flop on the couch, but someone was already there. Ponyboy.

I nugged him.

"Hmmm," he grumbled rolling over to look at me, "Oh, what to you want?"

"The couch. Why aren't you in your bed with Soda?" I asked, really wanting to fall asleep.

Pony laughed ruefully, "You were the one that told me I was too old to be sharing a bed."

"Well I was just mad," I said as a way of an apology and explanation.

"Well too bad, you can have Darry's recliner," Pony shot back.

I knew Soda slept with him because of the nightmares. I hadn't ever been over when he'd had one, but Soda said they were bad. I didn't really think any nightmare could be bad enough to make me want to share a bed, but I hadn't had nightmares since I was a kid.

I was too tired to argue. I flopped down on the chair. The kid got up and grabbed me a blanket and pillow from the hall closet.

"Thanks kid," I said, feeling bad about being so mean to him.

He looked at me. "Only because Mom would've smacked me for being rude to house guest and for kicking out someone who needed a place to stay. I still think you're an asshole."

Ponyboy was something else. He would be polite to someone, because that was how his mom had raised him, and at the same time glare at me like he wanted to take a baseball bat to my head.

Silence fell and eventually we both drifted off to sleep.

I was jolted awake by a piercing scream. It made the hair on my neck stand up. It was worse than the screams of someone getting jumped, or shouting in anger, or even the screams of Curly Shepard when he fell ten feet and broke his arm. This was the sound of someone getting tortured.

Ponyboy was writhing in agony, twisting and turning eventually falling from the couch to the floor. It was like he was being branded with white hot metal. Darry and Soda came pounding in. They murmured comforting words to him. Darry held him until he was still, taking punched and kicks from his flailing brother. He stopped moving and Darry let go, but he was still screaming. It had been like three solid minutes. What was wrong with him? Soda cradled him and he suddenly shot up, awake and panicked, drenched in sweat.

"You're okay, Pony. We're right here," Soda said smiling at him.

The kid looked close to tears, but he held them in.

"You okay?" Darry asked.

"Fine, it was just-" he broke off staring at me. Glaring more like it.

"Pony why were you sleeping out here?" Soda asked. "It scared me when I heard you, but couldn't find you."

Ponyboy just shrugged.

"You sure you're okay?" Darry asked again.

"Fine. I'm just going to get some water." He got up and walked to the kitchen.

"Sorry, 'bout this Steve," Darry said with a yawn.

"Don't worry about it," I said. Still a little shocked at what I had just witnessed. It was a private family matter, that I wasn't supposed to see. Pony's glare said that pretty clearly.

Ponyboy reentered with a glass in hand, "I'm really sorry I woke everyone up. I know y'all got work in the morning."

"Don't worry about it Pone," Soda said. "We don't mind at all. We want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm always okay. They're just dreams. You guys, well," he was looking down at his socked feet, "you don't have to get up whenever I have a nightmare. If you just ignore me, I can get myself back to sleep just fine. I ain't a baby."

"Pony," Darry said in an exasperated sort of way, "Don't worry about waking us up. We. Don't. Mind."

"Really?" he asked unconvinced.

"Really!" Soda answered.

"What gave you the idea we did?" Darry asked.

Pony glanced at me. "No reason, I just know you guys don't get much sleep cause of me."

"C'mon Pony, let's go to bed." Soda said throwing his arm around Ponyboy and pulling him off to their room.

Darry watched them go and then turned to look at me with raised eyebrows. "You know something I don't?" Apparently Pony's discrete look in my direction hadn't gone unnoticed.

I shrugged. "Soda's the one you should talk to. I don't have regular heart-to-hearts with the kid,"

Darry rubbed his eyes. "Night."

It was a number of hours later that I finally stopped hearing those screams and was able to fall asleep.


End file.
